By Haydn Gleed
WWF Raw on the USA Network
Macon, Georgia at the Macon Coliseum
The show opened with a recap of the Bam Bam Bigelow and Lawrence Taylor verbal confrontation last week, as well as narrated highlights of the press conference the following day. Vince promised that later in the night we would see the shocking comments from LT as well as the confrontation between Diesel and Shawn Michaels. With that, the bad music played with the new quite cool but still dated video…
In the arena, Vince said we would have a great match here tonight between Shawn Michaels and British Bulldog as the fireworks went off. Vince introduced his co-announcer Jim Cornette who once again called Sid completely nuts. Sid looked blown up after just walking to the ring….
Retro Verdict: Just incase Mr Sid is reading this and has an inclination to fly over to the UK and find me with some scissors , I just want to say what a nice man I think you are and it’s all banter my friend. Just want to make it clear that I’m not saying I’m scared of that ‘roided freak….Uh I mean lovely gentleman.
Once in the ring, Shawn Michaels is dancing away and Sid sweats in the background from standing still. Royal Britannia played, and out came The British Bulldog to a good and what seemed like a genuine pop…
1. Shawn Michaels vs. The British Bulldog. As Bulldog made his way into the ring, Vince said that in his opinion The British Bulldog was the rightful winner of the Royal Rumble and should be going to WrestleMania…..uh you what? I’m all for putting over a babyface if the heels cheat, but only one of Shawn’s feet touched the floor so Vince is talking nonsense.
Both men circled each other, but Bulldog got the initial offense with some power moves. Shawn sold like his life depended on it and went flying backwards over the turnbuckle. Sid picked him up and then had to take a two minute breather……ok the breather never happened, but Shawn was picked up and tried to get in the ring several times but Bulldog kept knocking him down with right hands. Cornette complained about Sid being so close to him.
Shawn climbed into the ring and managed to get Bulldog off his feet, but Davey Boy came back in quick order and clotheslined Michaels over the top rope. Sid again picked up Shawn and then yelled at someone, maybe his shadow, and then had a conference with Shawn. The boytoy climbed back in the ring and they again locked up. Bulldog applied a headlock and despite Shawn trying to escape a couple of times, Smith kept hold of the headlock.
Shawn made a comeback and put a short arm scissors on Bulldog and it looked brutal. Trying to think of another scissors joke involving Sid but I must be tired. Davey managed to roll over and got a quick two count on Shawn, but Michaels rolled Bulldog back onto his back. As we went to a commercial, Davey Boy was yelling no he doesn’t give up….
Back from the break, Davey Boy was still in the scissors, but impressively picked up Shawn above his head and brought him down to the canvas. Nice. This was followed by some decent offense for the British one using his power whipping Shawn from corner to corner. He applied a surfboard on Michaels who was selling the move like his arms were going to rip off, brilliant. Shawn got to his feet first but Bulldog hit a snapmare and applied a chinlock, using his power to wear the boy toy down.
With both men back on their feet, Bulldog hit a back body drop on Shawn who went flying through the air over the top rope, but fortunately the crazy fool that is Sid was there to catch him. He put Michaels on the apron who knocked Bulldog down with a right, but he wasn’t on offense for too long. Davey hit a big vertical suplex on Mr WrestleMania and held it for a good 15 seconds and got a close two count. With Shawn on the canvas, Bulldog stalked him but Michaels grabbed the trunks and threw Bulldog to the outside. As Bulldog hit the ground, he reached for his knee. This led to a sustained amount of offense for Michaels.
Late in the match, Bulldog had recovered and was offense and hit a number of power moves and continued to get several near falls. He charged towards Shawn who ducked and he went flying to the outside. Sid stalked him, and with the referee distracted, Sid charged towards him and hit him in the back with a knee.
Retro Verdict: Hehe, Sid ran like Benny Hill.
Bulldog climbed back in the ring where Shawn rolled him up into a small package for a two count which Bulldog kicked out of, but as he stood back up, Michaels met him with what would become Sweet Chin Music….
Shawn Michaels beat The British Bulldog in 23:23.
Retro Verdict: What a good match. The action slowed down around the 15 minute mark, which you would expect, but as a result of it slowing down too much it dragged a little. But with that being said, thoroughly enjoyed that match, and if you are too young to have seen Shawn at his very best, then watch this match as he bumped and sold for Bulldog, and not only got himself over but made Davey Boy look like a million bucks in the process. Yes I’m still giggling at Sid’s Benny Hill style running. I’m going to call him Ernie The Fastest Milkman In The West from now on (yes I did just make a bad ’70s reference joke).
They went backstage to Todd Pettengill whose hair makes him look more and more like a rat every week. He talked about the press conference the previous week and got very excited. They showed clips of the fans outside in the rain before going inside the building. Diesel turned up and ran down his history with Shawn Michaels and his history of winning belts. He said he’s living the American Dream and if you work hard things happen. It also helps that you are naturally tall and your boss loves you for it. They showed Shawn Michaels responding by saying what he does is go out there and thrill people. He said at WrestleMania 11 it’ll be no different. He told Diesel you need to be ready because at WrestleMania he will give the fans a show like they’ve never seen before.
Also, they showed Bam Bam Bigelow talking at the press conference, and said there’s not one NFL player who could step into his world in the wrestling ring. He said this is my world LT this is my ring and you are just a flash in the pan. They then showed Lawrence Taylor arriving before showing him saying that Bam Bam is a big guy and a gifted athlete. He said that he has faced bigger and better on the football field and retired them. He said he’s not going to let any Easter egg disrespect him. They then setup the stereotypical shot of going nose to nose before LT gave Bam Bam Bigelow a kiss on the cheek. They then said that Pamela Anderson was going to be there, but as well as her other celebrities to appear will be Nicholas Turturro (who?!), Jonathan Taylor Thomas (who?!) and Jennifer McCarthy would make an appearance.
Retro Verdict: Hey, I know who Jennifer McCarthy is at least. I thought they said there was going to be some shocking words at the press conference?! You lie Todd “Rat Boy” Pettengill! Not sure I like Shawn essentially breaking kayfabe and saying that he’s going out to put on a show for the fans, surely he should be going out there wanting to win the belt? Small nitpick.
After a commercial, Bob Backlund made his musicless entrance to face Buck Quartermaine….
2. Bob Backlund vs. Buck Quartermaine. Both men did a lot of amateur wrestling and after a very dull five minutes, Bob Backlund won with the crossface chickenwing….
Bob Backlund beat Buck Quartermaine in 5:16.
Retro Verdict: I really don’t enjoy these type of matches, you might disagree but it’s not my cup of tea. Not only that, it was a squash match that went far far too long to do anything for Bob Backlund except bore the crowd. There were two guys in the front row who looked like this is the best thing they had ever seen, so maybe I am wrong but I doubt it.
They promoted that next week it will be Jerry “The King” Lawler against Bret Hart as well as highlights of Lawler taking shots at Stu and Helen Hart and also the comment about Bret being a racist, which again they didn’t put into context…
Back in the arena, Steven Dunn was introduced as well as his manager Harvey Whippleman. The reverse light beeps sounded in the arena, and out came Duke “The Dumpster” Droese…
3. Duke “The Dumpster” Droese vs. Steven Dunn. Dunn took over the early part of this match, while they had Jerry “The King” Lawler on the phone. Jerry said that he’s excited about the match next week and questions if Bret Hart will show up. He also cracked that Stu Hart was so old that when he was in school there was no history. He also talked about Bret Hart being a racist and he has proof. Whatever.
Duke eventually came back and beat Dunn with the Trash Compactor….
Duke “The Dumpster” Droese beat Steven Dunn in 4:02.
After the match Steven Dunn tried to attack Droese with the trash can, but Duke chased him away. He then looked at the trash from the trash can and found a $100 bill, random…..
Retro Verdict: This match was completely overshadowed by the phone call from Jerry Lawler and the subsequent chat between the announcers. As for the post match angle, I don’t remember anything coming of it, so at this point no point talking about it.
At this point I thought it was the end of the show as Vince was summing up the show and promoting next week, but they showed a video of Paul Bearer and Mr Fuji who were in a police interrogation room, with the cop accusing him of doing something to Yokozuna. The camera pulled back with Paul saying he hadn’t done anything wrong, and they showed he was wearing a blonde wig and women’s clothes WTF?!? The Undertaker’s gong sounded and the lights went off. When they came back on, Mr Fuji was now wearing the blonde wig and the women’s clothes. They came back and Vince was smiling and laughing….
Retro Verdict: WTF was that? Seriously. You know there was only one person on the planet that found that funny and he was sitting at the announce desk. Up until that point I had really enjoyed the opening of the show and everything else was either a decent build to WrestleMania or inoffensive, but that skit was just pure bad and not in the slightest bit funny or accomplished anything *sigh*. When does WCW Nitro start in 1995?!?
The next week show should be fun, and the review of that show should be on the main pages of prowrestling.net by this evening.
As always, if you want to say hello or try and explain to me where the humor was in that final segment, get in touch via twitter @haydngleed or via email haydn.gleed@gmail.com
hello wwe I Hope that shae win over the undertaker and roman WIN OVER TRIPEHUNTER JAMES MICHAEL GILL